By The Next Plays
Posted on June 28, 2010. Listed in:
Vortex Hydro Energy is a start up in the process of taking a lab-proven concept - Vivace - into onsite testing and product development. Vivace is a scalable, flexible and modular system that works in slow-flow water. Wave and tidal turbines require an average of five or six knots to operate efficiently. Vivace can operate at currents of less than two knots. Vivace uses groups of cylinders in frames on the ocean floor or river bed. The cylinders create vortexes as the water flows around them which in turn causes them to move up and down. The movement drives generators that are connected via cables to the grid and storage devices on land. Vivace moves from the Lab to a pilot in the Detroit River in 2010. 21 long thin cylinders suspended mid-river in frames will create a constant three kilowatts of energy. Current calculations suggest that, fully commercialized, Vivace will produce energy at 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour, that’s cheaper than nuclear and wind.
www.vortexhydroenergy.com
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